NFL VP Ray Anderson says replacement refs improving

Last night, the league’s vice president of football operations, Ray Anderson, was in Baltimore, and said he was encouraged by the improvement replacement refs have shown.

“We expected going in, just like the players going through the preseason, that every week they would get better,” Anderson told Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun. “The first week, we had some rough spots and we got better from the first week to the second week and we expect to get better this week, too, and on and on.

“This is the third week and it seems to me they’ve had a pretty solid first half. Uneventful, that’s exactly what you want. That’s the improvement we expect.”

Anderson also made it clear the league’s in no rush to budge on their position at the moment, reminding the officials that the league has the hammer and won’t hesitate to keep using it.

“Labor peace, absolutely, that’s the goal, but it’s got to be under circumstances that we believe are reasonable and hopefully they believe are reasonable,” Anderson said. “We’re not there yet. Eventually, hopefully, we’ll get there. In the meantime, these current officials are the ones out there and we’ll work with them.”

Anderson can tell himself that as much as he wants. The reality is, there are glaring mistakes in each game, and they will only be magnified when the games become real, and the scrutiny grows.

There were glaring mistakes in nearly every game last year that I watched. It’s a difficult job. Hopefully surgeons dont go on strike… I need my bypass surgery, here’s a replacement surgeon. Things could always be worse.

I am really disgusted with the way the NFL is trying to spin this. Slightly better crap is still crap. The league wants us to believe they are focused on player safety and putting the best product on the field. So why are they putting officials out there that don’t know or understand the rules, who could get players hurt, and who could adversely affect the outcomes of real games through bad calls?

Oh, that’s right… because the NFL gets to save $6,000 per official per game. Hey Roger, paying real officials is an investment in the league, not a detraction.